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Character Study: Detective Heart

Attention, fellow writers! NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, is fast approaching! While getting started on the actual writing before November 1st is forbidden, we are free to plan and plot as much as we choose. So for this week, I’m doing character studies on my characters that will be in my upcoming story.Name: Lovely A. Heart

Nickname/Preferred Name: Leah Heart, Detective Heart

Job: Police Detective

Background: Leah has always wanted to be a detective. Even as a kid, she used to try and hunt down bad guys. She enrolled in the Police Academy straight out of high school. Not only was she top of her class, but she also took many community college classes at the same time, working to broaden her knowledge. After graduating, she quickly established herself as one of the most talented and dedicated officers in the field.

Skills: Extensive combat training, including multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat. A crack shot, proficient with a wide array of weapons besides her usual sidearm. Smart and logical, able to remain calm and reason in tense situations. Skilled in many police-related skills, including nonlethal combat, tactical driving, infiltration tactics, and other abilities.

Carried Items:

Car keys. Leah has her own unmarked police cruiser, which she’s tweaked for peak horsepower and handling. The vehicle is silver gray, and shows slight evidence of dents despite Leah having hammered them out many times.

Zip tie cuffs. Officers have found these cuffs to be more efficient and useful than standard metal cuffs, and have switched to using them. Leah has a supply on her at all times.

Police badge. Equipped with holographic seals to prove authenticity.

X5 stun pistol. The X5 is the standard-issue weapon now given to police officers. It fires a pair of charged steel flechettes that conduct an electrical charge between them – no wires required! The stun is usually enough to bring down an adult male human. Leah has modified her personal pistol to also fire a wide-angle burst of electricity, stunning in a wide arc.

Medical bracelet. This marks Leah as a “darkie” in case she is unconscious or immobilized and requires medical treatment.

Strengths: Leah Heart has an uncanny ability to ferret out answers for many crimes, even when it may be confusing to other officers. Her combination of determination, intelligence, skill, and fierce competitiveness gives her a strong intrinsic drive to succeed, to come out on top.Weaknesses: Is a natural “darkie” – her body is unable to accept bio-augmentation implants, and any attempt at augmentation could cause a potentially fatal allergic reaction. Because of this, she must work even harder to keep ahead of her fellow augmented officers. Leah also can have a short temper, a lack of patience, and is easily fed up and frustrated by bureaucracy and incompetence. She doesn’t tend to do well with jokes.

Pet Peeve: When things don’t make sense. Leah doesn’t hold much stock with the supernatural. “There’s always got to be an explanation.”